


Irrevocable

by starbuck92



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Fluff, I Blame Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 07:31:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1890336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starbuck92/pseuds/starbuck92
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would happen if things were flipped in the Iron Man universe? Virginia "Pepper" Potts - genius, billionaire, playgirl, and not quite a philanthropist. Tony Stark - her bright, young, and loyal PA, who somehow keeps her held together through the madness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Irrevocable

**Author's Note:**

> ir·rev·o·ca·ble  
> ˌiˈrevəkəbəl/  
> adjective
> 
> not able to be changed, reversed, or recovered -- because there's just some things that can't be changed
> 
> This fic was inspired by londowney's [crazy brilliant gifset](http://londowney.tumblr.com/post/85972353392/flipped-a-pepperony-au-part-1-virginia). I've told her I couldn't get this idea out of my head because of how much that set stuck with me, so she's entirely to blame! 
> 
> Disclaimer: Marvel owns them (although not quite like this, ha).

It was only 7:30 a.m. and Tony Stark was already in a poor mood. He had received a call from one seriously annoyed Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes who had been waiting for half an hour at the private airstrip by a jet prepped and ready to fly to the Middle East for an important weapons demonstration, but the owner of the aforementioned jet had been a no-show. Not that that was terribly surprising, Tony thought wistfully.

Virginia “Pepper” Potts was anything but consistent when it came to sticking to her schedule when Tony wasn’t around.

After parking his car out on the drive, Tony entered the quiet, spacious house. “Ms. Potts?” he called out, not really expecting a reply.

Sighing, he tried someone else that was usually a bit more helpful. “JARVIS?” The AI was unfortunately silent as well. It was just his luck that JARVIS would be in sleep mode and would only respond to his creator’s commands this early in the morning.

He set his briefcase down on the small table by the door and nearly tripped over a pair of four-inch Louboutins left in the middle of the foyer, cursing as he struggled not to end up flat on his face. Regaining his balance, Tony reached down and snagged the back straps of the shoes with a lot more force than necessary, glaring at the bright pink and red patent leather, before his gaze drifted to a matching skirt pooled on the floor not ten feet away and a black tank top hanging from a step leading to the rooms upstairs.

He followed the trail of discarded clothing up the stairs, mixed feelings stirring in his belly. There appeared to be enough pieces for one woman’s outfit, but knowing his boss, that didn’t necessarily mean she’d spent the night alone. Previous experience had taught Tony that Ms. Potts could very well have tugged her clothes back on returning downstairs if she wandered off to the workshop in the middle of the night, customarily leaving another random one night stand in bed alone for him to deal with in the morning.

The door to the bedroom was partly open. Bracing himself for what he might find inside, Tony knocked gently on the wood, using his knuckles to push the door the rest of the way, and blinked in surprise.

The room was empty, the bed made and apparently unused.

“How ‘bout that,” he murmured, walking down the hall to the other end of the house, where the door to the real master bedroom was shut, accessible only by two key codes. Punching in his code, Tony slowly opened the door to the room that Ms. Potts revered as one of her truly private sanctuaries. The walls were lined with rows and rows of books that had belonged to her father, and resting on the foot of the bed was a patchwork quilt her mother had made for her when she was a child. Framed photographs were tucked onto the shelves, depicting images of the family she had lost when she was just a teenager.

Although many men and women had boasted they had shared Pepper Potts’ bed for a night, none had ever stepped foot in this room.

“Ms. Potts?”

She didn’t stir at the sound of his voice. Tony stepped further into the room, coming to a stop at her bedside, fighting a smile at the sight of waves and waves of strawberry blonde hair framing her sleeping face.

It was a rare occasion for him to truly look upon her without any of the barriers she erected against the world, always brash and brilliant and charismatic for the public eye. Splashed on every newspaper, magazine cover, and Internet gossip rag, the persona of the genius young woman who had followed in her father’s footsteps was known worldwide, inventing cutting edge technology for everything from weapons manufacturing to medical advances, all in between living recklessly from one party to another, a trail of broken hearts following that devil-may-care smile.

Tony was one of the very few people privileged enough to see the real Pepper, the kind and sweet woman that loved to giggle and who truly appreciated the small circle of genuine friends she knew with certainty weren’t after a piece of her intellect, her fortune, or her body.

One of those friends, however, was likely fuming right now and wearing a hole in the tarmac with his pacing.

Though he was loathe to wake her from her peaceful slumber, Tony knew he had to get her back on schedule and on her way to Afghanistan for the presentation. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he allowed himself one scarce indulgence, lightly brushing the tip of his forefinger along an errant curl, the corners of his mouth lifting when she wrinkled her freckled nose.

Tony cleared his throat and tried again, a little more loudly. “Ms. Potts.”

The Pepper-shaped lump wriggled slightly before dipping further beneath the covers until only the top half of her head was visible, one bleary blue eye opening to glare at him as she grumbled audibly.

Not letting her get the better of him, Tony yanked the covers down to her shoulders, mindful of the fact that she probably wasn’t wearing anything beneath those sheets. “You are supposed to be on a plane halfway around the world right now.”

Pepper arched an eyebrow, a familiar look of petulance crossing her features. “Excuse me, but the last time I looked, the name on the side of the plane said Potts Industries, not Stark Industries, Tony. It’ll leave when I’m ready.”

Contrary to her words, she did kick the covers off of herself, immediately prompting Tony to pop off the bed and toss her the well-worn fluffy robe she’d owned since her days at MIT, averting his eyes until he was certain she wasn’t completely naked in front of him anymore. He stopped himself from rolling his eyes at her when he caught sight of the playful, mischievous smile on her face as she cinched the belt of the robe closed, padding to the bathroom to start the shower for her.

“Be that as it may, Rhodey is going to kill you for making him wait. I can’t afford for that to happen. You know how much I hate job hunting, Ms. Potts.”

Pepper followed him into the bathroom, grabbing her toothbrush, and though her tone was teasing, her eyes were anything but. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that for a long time, Tony. You know I can’t function without you.”

Tony’s breath caught in his throat as he took in her sincere smile, hands fumbling slightly with the large, soft towels in his hands. The moment lasted only a few seconds before, true to form, Pepper disrobed, the smile widening into a cheeky grin and sharp laugh as Tony tossed her the towels and sped out of the bathroom.

Two hours later, Happy Hogan was climbing the air stairs with Pepper’s bags in hand, Tony following close on his heels as Rhodey argued with Pepper about punctuality as she climbed out of her Audi, dressed to the nines in blue jeans, a leather jacket, and high-heeled boots, her wavy hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. After a few minutes, the colonel clambered up the stairs, sighing and shaking his head as he muttered, “I don’t know how you do it, man,” as he clapped Tony’s shoulder and ducked into the plane.

Pepper took her time, giving Happy a quick peck on the cheek in farewell after he reemerged from the aircraft, before taking the stairs one at a time until she was standing in front of Tony. She handed over the keys to her car, giving him a hard smile.

“You don’t trust me to actually get on the plane, Stark?”

Tony shrugged a shoulder, pocketing his tablet, his eyes steadily meeting hers. “Just doing my job. Will that be all, Ms. Potts?”

Pepper’s smile softened at the familiar exchange of words, her hand brushing over his arm. “That will be all, Mr. Stark.”

As the crew sealed the door of the aircraft from the inside, Tony made his way back down the stairs and walked to the Audi, turning to lean against the frame as he watched the ground crew work. Within a few minutes, the aircraft was taxiing to the runway and he breathed a sigh of relief, sliding into the driver’s seat of the vehicle, already focused on the hundred other things that needed to be done before the end of the day.

Thirteen hours later, the last thing he expected as he was wrapping things up at the mansion was a call from a distressed Rhodey, his voice choked with tears of rage and anguish as he tried to explain the situation from half a world away.

“We were ambushed. They took her, Tony. They took her!”

Tony could still hear Rhodey’s voice on the line, but it didn’t register any more than the sharp edge of the kitchen counter cutting into the palm of his hand or the sudden tightness in his chest when his lungs failed to recall they needed oxygen to keep him alive. He moved mechanically as he thumbed the phone off, setting it by the sink, silence cocooning him for several heartbeats.

It hit him all at once, leaving him gasping for air as he clung to the counter with both hands now, trying to anchor himself to this new and unwanted reality, bewildered and shocked at how ten little words had instantly devastated the last ten years of his life.

Those first, eternal minutes ticked into hours that developed into days, and days soon stretched into weeks. Through it all, Tony carried on, back straight and eyes forward, making sure that Pepper’s world would be ready for her return even as his own began to crumble from within, his steadfast faith on the brink of collapsing as he endured every day without her snarky comments and bursts of extraordinary intelligence, feeling a sharp twist deep within his chest as he recalled her face – more familiar to him than his own – and every imaginable expression that had graced her features, missing the compassionate heart he never realized he had come to love so much.

Three nightmarish months later, Tony received another call that flipped his world upside down again, and seventy-two hours later found himself waiting on another tarmac side by side with Happy as the cargo plane transporting their previously missing employer touched down on a military runway outside of Los Angeles.

Riddled with anxiousness, Tony shifted from foot to foot as the aircraft approached, not knowing what to expect as the back of the cargo bay lowered. He had spoken to Pepper a number of times over the phone since she had been found in the desert, sometimes simply just talking nonsense to her so she could hear the sound of his voice, but hearing her was one thing.

It was another thing entirely to finally see her with his own eyes.

Taking her best friend’s hand, Pepper slowly rose out of the wheelchair she had been sitting in, wobbling only once before she secured her balance. Nevertheless, Rhodey kept an arm tucked around hers, guiding her down the ramp of the aircraft until they were on level ground. A couple of medics with a rolling stretcher stepped up to the pair, but were quickly dismissed by the colonel after one look at Pepper’s narrowed eyes.

When she caught sight of Tony and Happy, the tension visible in her shoulders loosened just a bit and she released Rhodey’s hand to step toward Happy, giving him a careful hug, allowing Tony the opportunity to study her.

The black tailored suit he had overnighted to her hung loosely from her frame, months of being fed scraps and porridges leaving her alarmingly thinner than she had already been. Her cheeks and nose sported a mild sunburn and faint bruises and healing scrapes marred her otherwise perfect skin.

As she turned her attention to Tony, he noted just how large and blue her eyes were and how starkly the dusting of freckles on her pale face stood out beneath the bright Southern California sun before he found himself with his arms full of Pepper. She wrapped her one good arm around his waist, the other tucked safely in its sling between their bodies, and her fingers clutched the back of his suit jacket as she buried her face in his shoulder.

Tony shuddered with relief as he held her within the safety of his embrace, his lips ghosting over the crown of her head and his eyes squeezing shut as he breathed her in. All of the fear and grief that had clutched at his heart the last three months finally began to dissipate as one hand slid up the back of her head, fingers tangling in the soft waves of her hair.

Home. Pepper was home.

Tony was so caught up in her presence that it took him a moment to notice something else was different about her. There was something hard, foreign, and unknown pressing against his chest, centered just below Pepper’s collarbones, but before he could ask, she had pulled herself together and taken a step back. Her facial features were schooled into a neutral expression, the rare moment of vulnerability tucked away in some place only she could find.

Squaring her shoulders, Pepper gazed at him with a rekindled fire in her eyes that simultaneously frightened and invigorated him.

“We have work to do.”

And though he was not certain to what work she was referring, Tony nodded solemnly in response, trusting his instincts and the unquestionable iron in her voice, ready to support her and guide her through whatever madness the world threw at them next.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Amanda for the beta, timewarpingavengers for the encouragement, and to Avery for helping me work through one of the most troublesome parts of this fic!
> 
> This was originally written as a one-shot but... I've had a few other ideas stirring in my head of some additional "missing scenes" in this AU, which may or may not turn into a small series.


End file.
